Car Craft's Real Street Eliminator VIII

It's the annual Car Craft street car test held in conjunction with the Car Craft Summer Nationals that we covered last month. Within our three-day, gasoline-fed funfest, we also stage Real Street Eliminator, brought to you by Fram, that is Car Craft's longest-running annual test of muscle-car mettle. But enough hype; with so many competitors, let's get right to it.

This year, we had a total of 22 cars compete with the largest participation in the Late Model class. We welcomed several returning competitors trying again to be top dog in their classes, along with several newcomers who did exceptionally well. As it has been for the last few years, our competition focuses on three events: the Lucas Oil chassis dyno, the QA1 autocross, and the Car Craft Launch Box with overall sponsorship by Fram. We assign points for the top three finishers in each category, and we use the horsepower from the chassis dyno as the tiebreaker. In the past, horsepower has come into play several times to break a tie, and since we don't discourage power-adders, it's always a good show on the dyno.

But before we get this show underway, we should acknowledge previous competitor Jesse Riggle. We often take for granted that everyone always arrives unscathed, but barely a few dozen miles from St. Paul, Jessie was involved in a freak trailer accident that flipped his '99 Firebird, truck, and trailer. All three were badly damaged and, worse yet, the trailer was borrowed. Jesse wasn't hurt, but the financial setback is crushing. If this makes you think about towing safety, then perhaps this accident was not a total negative. Jesse says he will return, and we believe him.

2/24Ryan Buck took teh Muscle Car Field by surprise with his little Chevy II. Short-wheelbase cars tend to have a slight advantage on tight autocross courses, but much of the credit still has to got to Ryan's driving skill and his suspension tuning.

Lucas Oil Dyno Challenge

Real Street Eliminator places special emphasis on the dyno challenge, and it's clear that the competitors do, too. Plus, it's a bit of an ego thing to show up with a combination that can lay down a strong number. There were a couple of returning racers who we knew would be players, and there were a couple of new cars that looked promising. When Jim Schmittinger arrived (at the last minute) with this turbo Buick, we knew we were in for a treat. He's been threatening to show up for the last couple of years, but something always seems to fail on his Buicks. While his Kenny Duttweiler–built turbo V6 just missed the magic 1,000hp mark at 959, Jim enlightened us afterward that this big number was with a wounded turbo. As always, he promises next year to return with even more power. Fortunately for the rest of the field, this was Jim's only strong performance, as he finished well back in the other two events.

Nathan Shaw also returned with a vengeance, upping last year's strong 655hp run with a very impressive 923 number to take the top spot in the Muscle Car class, followed closely by Jeff Schwartz's twin-turbo Pontiac Trans Am. Perennial performer Justin Nall also returned with his '66 Chevelle to make 654 and long-distance runner Troy Borgen also made noise with more than 600 hp, finishing Fourth. Imagine making more than 600 hp and not finishing in the points for the chassis dyno—that shows how competitive RSE has become.

Conversely, with only three cars in the Corvette/Viper class, all you had to do was show up to get points. Last year's Late Model class competitor Peter Barton returned with a '69 Corvette and lobbied successfully to intelligently switch to the Corvette class with his older machine. He was up against heady competition from Jeff Smith (no relation to this magazine's tech editor), who cranked out a solid 839 rwhp to take the top spot followed by Joel Kangas' supercharged Viper cranking out only 394.

3/24Jim Schmittinger’s ’87 Buick had the smallest-displacement engine but knocked out the biggest power of all three classes with a stunning 959 hp. And after the pull, one of the turbos was completely locked up.

Lucas Oil Dyno Challenge Results

Muscle Car Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Points

1st Nathan Shaw

'71 Nova

923

30

2nd Jeff Schwartz

'81 Trans Am

808

20

3rd Justin Nall

'66 Chevelle

654

10

4th Troy Borgen

'69 Camaro

606

-

5th Eric Hokenson

'63 Impala

547

-

6th Damion Campbell

'63 Pontiac LeMans

393

-

7th Ryan Buck

'63 Chevy II

297

-

4/24Mike Callahan came back again this year with his Crown Vic to show that even big cars can be competitive on a tight autocross. On the chassis dyno, his 4.6L Ford made 276 rwhp.

Late Model Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Points

1st Jim Schmittinger

'87 Buick GNX

959

30

2nd Brandon Brambilla

'11 Camaro

721

20

3rd Greg Hopper

'06 GTO

489

10

4th Dan Forsman

'94 Camaro Z28

450

-

5th John Wegner

'13 Camaro ZL1

426

-

6th Eric Sward

'98 Trans-Am

414

-

7th Dan Howe

'84 Monte Carlo SS

388

-

8th Ron Popesh

'11 Mustang

374

-

9th Bill Irwin

'00 Camaro

338

-

10th Michael Callahan

'99 Crown Victoria

276

-

11th Brett Lindert

'97 Mustang GT

253

-

12th Justin Hirschuber

'94 Mustang GT

199

-

Corvette Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Points

1st Jeff Smith

'99 Corvette

839

30

2nd Joel Kangas

'01 Viper

394

20

3rd Peter Barton

'69 Corvette

237

10

5/24Nathan Shaw probably feels a little like Rodney Dangerfield—it seems like RSE doesn’t show him nearly enough respect. It’s not from a lack of trying. His bad-ass Nova made 923 rwhp and stomped on a very high-tech field of strong cars.

QA1 Autocross

Every year, this is where the serious competition starts. The rules allow each RSE competitor to make as many passes as necessary to generate his best time. This usually ends up in a shootout between the top three cars in each class on Saturday afternoon because the better drivers generally take command. This year's course was again laid out by our friends from the Land O'Lakes SCCA club and was substantially longer than last year's. Heading into this event, we took only passing notice of Ryan Buck's rustic Chevy II, but it didn't take long for him to show us he was serious. He'd wrecked his previous Chevy II and took his time rebuilding this one with a TCI front and rear suspension and then revealed his driving skills by eventually pulling off an impressive 30.12 time that was only surpassed by Dan Howe's 29.974-second Monte Carlo lap time in the Late Model class and Jeff Smith's Corvette with a 29.589—which is why we split the Vettes and Vipers out of the Late Model class. There were several other notable autocross runs, including Damion Campbell's cool '63 LeMans pavement-cutter running a 30.735. John Wegner in his new ZL1 '13 Camaro was in the hunt with a 30.033, but Daniel Forsman's '94 Camaro sliced off an even quicker 30.166. The tightest race was for Second Place in Muscle Car when Damion Campbell's LeMans bested Jeff Schwartz's Trans Am by a scant 0.035-second.

We noticed something interesting with Dan Howe's numerous runs, including his sub-30-second pass. Despite the fact that he was wheeling a rather large Monte Carlo, his passes were exceptionally smooth, and he carried far more speed through the middle sections of the course than nearly every other car that ran that weekend. It you watched closely, you could learn a lot from his very impressive runs. And he's only been racing for a little more than a year.

6/24

QA1 Autocross Results

Muscle Car Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Ryan Buck

'63 Chevy II

30.12

30

2nd Damion Campbell

'63 Pontiac LeMans

30.735

20

3rd Jeff Schwartz

'81 Trans Am

30.77

10

4th Nathan Shaw

'71 Nova

31.19

-

5th Justin Nall

'66 Chevelle

31.695

-

6th Troy Borgen

'69 Camaro

32.215

-

7th Eric Hokenson

'63 Impala

37.359

-

Late Model Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Dan Howe

'84 Monte Carlo

29.974

30

2nd John Wegner

'13 ZL1 Camaro

30.033

20

3rd Daniel Forsman

'94 Camaro Z28

30.166

10

4th Brett Lindert

'97 Mustang GT

31.071

-

5th Justin Hirschuber

'94 Mustang GT

31.354

-

6th Bill Irwin

'00 Camaro

31.945

-

7th Brandon Brambilla

'11 Camaro

32.215

-

8th Ron Popesh

'11 Mustang

33.020

-

9th Greg Hopper

'06 Pontiac GTO

33.293

-

10th Eric Sward

'98 Pontiac Trans Am

33.526

-

11th Michael Callahan

'99 Crown Victoria

35.022

-

12th Jim Schmittinger

'87 Buick GNX

36.656

-

Corvette/Viper Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Jeff Smith

'99 Corvette

29.589

30

2nd Joel Kangas

'01 Viper

31.453

20

3rd Peter Barton

'69 Corvette

37.370

10

Car Craft Launch Box

The Launch Box is a 150-foot go-whoa contest. It looks simple, but it is not. In fact, almost every year an otherwise competitive car gets eaten alive on the Launch Box. This year was no exception, especially as the competition becomes tighter. Last year, several cars broke into the 2.9-second bracket with the best RSE time this year executed by Dan Howe, who won the Late Model Launch Box effort last year, as well. He improved his time from last year's 2.99 to this year's 2.91 seconds—an outstanding effort. This was nearly equaled by Ryan Buck, who matched his top spot autocross effort by taking First Place in Launch Box with a 2.93. Jeff Schwartz was barely 0.07 second behind with his Trans Am, and Jeff flogged the T-A multiple tries in an attempt to beat Buck's time without success. Nathan Shaw was again close with a 3.14-second time for a Muscle Car class, which tied him with Justin Nall's Chevelle. The First-to-Third spread in Muscle Car was barely 0.21 second.

10/24Bill Irwin is another RSE first-timer with this LS1-powered ’00 Camaro. He was down on horsepower, but after several practice laps, cut a 31.945 that put him mid-pack. Expect to see nitrous on this car next year.

Muscle Car Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Ryan Buck

'63 Chevy II

2.93

30

2nd Jeff Schwartz

'81 Pontiac Trans Am

3.00

20

3rd Damion Campbell

'63 Pontiac LeMans

3.13

10

4th Nathan Shaw

'71 Nova

3.14

-

5th Justin Nall

'66 Chevelle

3.14

-

6th Eric Hokenson

'63 Impala

3.49

-

7th Troy Borgen

'69 Camaro

3.51

-

14/24Ron Popesh brought his ’11 Mustang to RSE and finished Eleventh in the Late Model Class.

Late Model Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Dan Howe

'84 Monte Carlo

2.91

30

2nd Justin Hirschuber

'94 Mustang GT

3.03

20

3rd Brett Lindert

'97 Mustang GT

3.06

10

4th Daniel Forsman

'94 Camaro Z28

3.11

-

5th Bill Irwin

'00 Camaro

3.12

-

6th John Wegner

'13 ZL1 Camaro

3.19

-

7th Brandon Brambilla

'11 Camaro

3.21

-

8th Eric Sward

'89 Pontiac Trans Am

3.23

-

9th Jim Schmittinger

'87 Buick GNX

3.24

-

10th Ron Popesh

'11 Mustang

3.27

11th Michael Callahan

'99 Crown Victoria

3.27

-

12th Greg Hopper

'06 GTO

3.36

-

Corvette Class

Position/Owner

Vehicle

Time

Points

1st Joel Kangas

'01 Viper

3.23

30

2nd Jeff Smith

'99 Corvette

3.37

20

3rd Peter Barton

'69 Corvette

3.38

10

15/24Fourth-generation F-bodies like Eric Sward’s ’89 Trans Am offer an excellent suspension that can be very quick on the autocross with a few suspension mods. Eric finished Tenth overall in the Late Model class

The Winners

Again this year, Real Street was a real fight right to the end. In Muscle Car, Jeff Schwartz delivered strong 808 hp, but it was only worth a Second Place against Nathan Shaw's amazing 923 hp. But, when Damion Campbell's '63 LeMans bested Schwartz in the autocross, this gave Ryan Buck the opening he needed to win the overall title, despite earning zero points on the dyno. His Nova only made 297 rwhp, but that was enough to win both the Launch Box and the QA1 autocross. So in this case, Nathan Shaw and Damion Campbell combined to act as spoilers. Had Schwartz earned a second spot in the QA1 autocross, he would have tied Buck and took the title based on his much stronger horsepower.

The Late Model winner, Dan Howe, duplicated Buck's feat, winning both the QA1 autocross and Launch Box, while finishing out of the points on the dyno. But given the broader performance spread among Howe's competition, he was able to handily beat Second Place Jim Schmittinger by a solid 20 points. So despite the emphasis we place on horsepower, a well-balanced, good-handling car wheeled by a competent driver can win a Real Street Eliminator class title.

In the Corvette/Viper class, it looked like Smith had the field covered when he took wins in both the dyno and the autocross venues, but an interesting twist occurred when Peter Barton's '69 Corvette almost stole Second Place in Launch Box from Smith with a time only 0.01 second behind. Had that occurred, Kangas and Smith would have tied for the overall win, although Smith would have still took the trophy because of his higher horsepower number.

While we don't officially award a King of the Hill prize, bragging rights can go to Smith's Corvette but only by virtue of his horsepower, since Howe tied Smith in points but gave up that title because of Smith's superior horsepower tiebreaker.

19/24This has happened several times in RSE, where monster horsepower doesn’t guarantee a win. Ryan Buck’s horsepower placed him dead last in Muscle Car, so he compensated by winning both the QA1 autocross and the Car Craft Launch Box.

Muscle Car

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Autocross

Launch Box

Total

1st Ryan Buck

'63 Chevy II

297

30.120 (30)

2.93 (30)

60

2nd Jeff Schwartz

'81 T/A

808 (20)

30.770 (10)

3.00 (20)

50

3rd Nathan Shaw

'71 Nova

923 (30)

31.190

3.14

30

4th Damion Campbell

'63 LeMans

393

30.735 (20)

3.13 (10)

30

5th Justin Nall

'66 Chevelle

654 (10)

31.695

3.14

10

6th Troy Borgen

'69 Camaro

606

32.215

3.51

-

7th Eric Hokenson

'63 Impala

547

37.359

3.49

-

Numbers in parenthesis are points awarded for the top three finishes. No points are awarded past Third Place. In case of a tie, the position goes to the car with the highest horsepower.

Late Model

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Autocross

Launch Box

Total

1st Dan Howe

'84 Monte Carlo

388

29.974 (30)

2.91 (30)

60

2nd Jim Schmittinger

'87 Buick GNX

959 (30)

36.656

3.24

30

3rd Brandon Bambilla

'11 Camaro

721 (20)

32.215

3.21

20

4th John Wegner

'13 ZL1 Camaro

426

30.033 (20)

3.19

20

5th Justin Hirschuber

'94 Mustang GT

199

31.354

3.03 (20)

20

6th Greg Hopper

'06 GTO

489 (10)

33.293

3.36

10

7th Daniel Forsman

'94 Camaro Z28

450

30.166 (10)

3.11

10

8th Brett Lindert

'97 Mustang

253

31.071

3.06 (10)

10

9th Bill Irwin

'00 Camaro SS

338

31.945

3.12

-

10th Eric Sward

'98 Trans Am

414

33.526

3.23

-

11th Ron Popesh

'11 Mustang

374

33.020

3.27

-

12th Michael Callahan

'99 Crown Victoria

276

32.215

3.21

-

20/24Jeff Smith took the Corvette Viper class by virtue of twin-turbo power and excellent overall autocross times. The engine is built from a stock, iron-block LQ4 6.0L with a stock crank, Eagle rods, and Diamond pistons with a Comp cam and stock LS3 heads. The twin Turbonetics turbos are mounted down low, so the engine almost appears stock. Almost…

Corvette/Viper

Position/Owner

Vehicle

HP

Autocross

Launch Box

Total

1st Jeff Smith

‘99 Corvette

839 (30)

29.589 (30)

3.37 (20)

80

2nd Joel Kangas

'01 Viper

394 (20)

31.453 (20)

3.23 (30)

70

3rd Peter Barton

'69 Corvette

236 (10)

37.37 (10)

3.38 (10)

30

With a Little Help from Our Friends

As for the last few years, we want to acknowledge the help of the new owner of the chassis dyno, Jay Miller of HP Mobile Chassis Dyno in Seymour, Indiana. Previous owner Andy Wicks still owns his shop (Dynotuneusa.com) in South Dakota and was on hand to help for the weekend. Of course, we'd like to thank the Land O'Lakes SCCA car club for its superb running of the QA1 autocross event. Regional Director Kathy Gillen was again helping with scoring along with a list of volunteers too numerous to mention. Thank you to everyone who endured those long hours chasing cones in the sun. No less importantly are our pals from the San Diego area who fly out every year to man the Launch Box. Doug Eisberg, Eric Rosenthal, and Eric Schmiege were with us all three days doing timing and scoring. Additional credit goes to Rosenthal who designed a custom computer program that made RSE scoring much easier. It's a better event with you guys there!

21/24This year, we staged a wheelie contest with the RSE golf cart that almost got out of control. There’s video evidence on CarCraft.com. Caught in the act is Eric Schmiege behind the wheel, Eric Rosendahl (left) and Doug Eisberg (right).